SQL Eval version installed instead of volume licence

Hi,

I've come across a problem where a contractor has installed SQL 2008 R2 evaluation version instead of using my volume licence key installation. I found out how to extract the key from the VLK version and tried to put it into the evaluation version but it says it is the wrong version. I have a number of databases running on that server and I don't really want to back up all of them, export users, maintenance tasks, etc., and have to uninstall SQL and reinstall the correct version and restore them all again.

Is there a way of running the VLK installer to "upgrade" the evaluation version to the correct version? Are there any command line switches I can run the setup.exe with to ensure it does the upgrade correctly?

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Hi Lee
It is possible to do an 'edition upgrade' in SQL Server for your scenario.
To upgrade, you need to have the installation media(CD, ISO etc.) of the destination version.
SQL Server evaluation edition can be upgraded to standard, developer and enterprise editions.

Re-running the volumne licensed installer to upgrade the edition should work (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143393(v=sql.105).aspx). However, as outlined in the article, there are certain restrictions placed (e.g. you cannot change the installed features, cross-platform installs are not supported, etc) - do ensure that you are not impacted by them.

If Barry's solution doesn't work then another solution is to stop current SQL Server service, copy all system databases (except tempdb) to another location and then uninstall SQL Server Evaluation Edition. Then install the correct SQL Server Edition using the same paths as previous version, stop the new SQL Server service and then overwrite the system databases with the copied files from the previous version. Start the SQL Server and you'll should have all Logins, User databases and Jobs.